What type of corruption is Buhari fighting when he shut his eyes to allegations of budget padding, gets cosy with the ‘budget rats’ and ‘padders’, gets reprieve for those he wanted prosecuted for forging house rules but keeps Sambo Dasuki in jail?

OCTOBER 1, 2016, Nigeria’s 56th Independence Day, came without much fanfare even if many had looked forward to the one-day holiday it afforded. The question on the lips of many was; what was there to celebrate about this day. Many would often wonder if Nigeria’s Independence Day is worth rolling out the drums for.

THAT the country is in recession and the economic crisis in which we’ve found ourselves is biting hard is now old news. Yes, we are in recession and Nigerians are presently preoccupied with finding solutions to our economic troubles.

THE best period to know an individual’s true character is in times of crisis. Anybody can lay claim to being anything when all is well but when the tide turns only then is true character reflected. It is for this reason I wonder what it would be like to conduct a patriotism test on Nigerians in this time of economic crisis, the worst in about three decades.

SOMETHING doesn’t look right about the decision to postpone the Edo State governorship election slated for last week. This is regardless of whatever reason or reasons informed the decision for the postponement by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. But even on this there is nothing to fix the decision on. Conflicting reasons have been adduced for the postponement and the fact that no consensus can be reached on this apparently simple matter only raises suspicion about INEC’s motive for tinkering with the electoral calendar.

PALPABLE frenzy gripped the nation’s media last week. Among the country’s newspapers it all looked like a competition, a race to be the first to report that the country had slipped into recession. The front pages of these newspapers reported the news with muted glee it seemed. We had finally made a remarkable achievement, maybe a dubious one.

Nigeria’s journey from fraternal hostility to national integration was on course (at least with no major or visible bumps) for nearly a quarter of a century after the civil war ended. But from the mid- 1990s onward the country entered a new and sustained phase of ethnic tension following a long period of military rule led by Nigerians from the North of the country.

Now the Rio Olympics is over it may be time to take stock of Nigeria’s participation at the games. After what were clearly shoddy preparations or in fact non-preparation for the games, the result of our participation is now out for all to see. A bronze medal in football couldn’t possibly be all we spent the last four years preceding the games preparing for. It was clear that nothing good could or would come out of Rio for Nigeria in the light of how we programmed ourselves to fail.

There are actually very concrete ways to measure the increasing cost of living in Nigeria which in turn explains why Nigerians are increasingly disenchanted with the Muhammadu Buhari administration. A simple way to go about this is to measure how the cost of common household goods and foodstuffs have either tripled or quadrupled in the last six months or thereabout.

The 2016 Rio Olympic Games took off to a slow start last week, precisely August 5. I didn’t watch the opening ceremony although I had looked forward to it. There was less to see by way of recorded broadcast of the opening activities even after the events.

There is something truly rotten about the state of our National Assembly. Like many aspects of Nigerian public life the National Assembly represents a moral blackhole in the firmament of the country’s existence. The whole place needs to be overhauled if our country is to regain its moral health.

JUST days after he left office as the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase was all but declared a thief by his successor as IGP, Idris Ibrahim. It was a bizarre and most unexpected indictment that gave one the impression that something must have been fundamentally wrong in the relationship between Arase and Ibrahim.

WHEN last week I was writing on the recent preoccupation of the Senate under Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu, namely the determination of the so-called ‘Like Minds’ senators, all supporters of the troubled duo, to hobble the Muhammadu Buhari presidency for what they consider its hostile attitude to the legislative arm of government.

Now that the Abuja High Court trying the case of forgery brought against the Senate President Bukola Saraki and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has adjourned hearing of the suit to September 2016, it may be reasonable to ask if the promised shutdown of the Senate by supporters of these principal officers of the Senate would still go ahead.

IT all started with the arraignment and eventual trial for false asset declaration of Bukola Saraki, the Senate President. Saraki who had emerged president of the Senate against the wish of his party is being tried before Justice Danladi Umar of the Code of Conduct Tribunal for concealing information on his assets when he was governor some ten years ago. Specifically Saraki is accused of concealing information of his ownership of some choice properties believed to have been acquired with public funds.